everyone is talking about proxies. What are they used for and why? sorry this is such a noob question.
To change your IP address so it looks like you are in another country, or just if your old IP address has been blocked for doing something too many times (posting to Craigslist etc.)
Have a read of the methods on the forums mate, and I'm sure you'll soon realise why you might need proxies. If you want to scale up on methods they are needed to ensure you don't have all your eggs in one basket/1 IP
Free are generally publicly shared so can be overused and often already blacklisted by sites such as CL. If you get some good private proxies then they may only be uses by a much smaller group of people (preferably just you)
Mate - there are 100s of methods listed across the forum in loads of categories. If you've searched and still stuck, then ask.